Michael Nesmith's 'Nez Solo' Spring Tour of the U.S.

Michael Nesmith will launch the month-long Nez Solo Spring 2013 Tour on March 21 outside of Nashville as Nez’s Solo Spring 2013 Tour prepares to take him to the metro areas of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Nesmith’s kick-off show at the Franklin Theater sold out an hour after tickets were available.

Nez’s Solo Spring 2013 Tour followed an invitation from a British promoter/agent to play the British Isles last year. The solo tour sold out immediately after it was announced, causing American concert promoters to take notice and make offers for the Nez Solo Spring Tour.

“The songs I’ll play are a touch chronological and a touch thematic. I picked my favorites to play, the ones I have come to love over the years, and the ones that are most requested by fans of my solo work,” Nesmith says.

The focus of the show will be on his latter-day song writing and recordings, but Nesmith did select one song he wrote for the Monkees’ — “Papa Gene’s Blues” — as the opening of the concert. “I hope Monkees fans are not disappointed but my solo recorded music is extensive and the songs that were part of the Monkees era comprise only a tiny part of it.”

Fans of Nesmith’s ground-breaking First National Band and later work will find much to look forward to, including “Joanne,” “Silver Moon,” “Propinquity,” “Grand Ennui” and “Thanx for the Ride.” This last song will include specially programmed software so the original pedal steel solo by Red Rhodes plays along with Nesmith and the band as they play the song live. Also look for songs from the albums And the Hits Just Keep On Coming, Photon Wing and Infinite Rider, as well as Elephant Parts, Tropical Campfires, The Prison and Rays — approximately 90 to 100 minutes of live Nez music in all.

In the Nez Solo Spring Tour the songs will be presented with short introductions that include a cinematic setting. According to Nesmith, “The songs live in my mind like mini-movies— vignettes — that associate themselves with the emotions of the song. I want the audience to share that.”

Michael Nesmith tours may be few and far between, but he greatly enjoys the onstage connection. “I have found nothing like a live performance in any other expression of the arts,” he says. “When it is done right, it is a most joyful and happy event — like a good meal, a fine conversation or a lover’s kiss.”

“A word sung is worth a thousand pictures,” he concludes.

Nesmith is a musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman and philanthropist, well known for his start as the singing, wool-capped, Gretsch guitar-slinging co-star of the Monkees television series (1966-68).

His songs were recorded not only by the Monkees (“Papa Gene’s Blues,” “The Girl I Knew Somewhere,” “Mary, Mary,” and “Listen to the Band” among others) but also by Linda Ronstadt & the Stone Poneys (“Different Drum”), the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (“Some of Shelley’s Blues”) the Butterfield Blues Band and Run-DMC (“Mary Mary”).

He executive-produced the movies Repo Man (1984), Timerider, and Tapeheads and founded Pacific Arts, a record, film and video production house and book publisher. He was the first and only winner of the Grammy Award for Video of the Year for his 1981 long-form video Elephant Parts. He is also the inventor and founder of Videoranch3D, for which he holds a patent.

In addition to the regular concert tickets there will be a very limited number of tickets sold for after show receptions where Nesmith will sign autographs, talk with fans, and pose for pictures with them.